Benefits of psychodynamic group therapy on depression, burden and quality of life of family caregivers to Alzheimer’s disease patients

Archives of Clinical Psychiatry (São Paulo)

Dorli Kamkhagi¹  Ana Carolina Oliveira Costa¹  Sandra Kusminsky¹  Deborah Supino¹  Breno Satler Diniz¹  Wagner Farid Gattaz¹  Orestes Vicente Forlenza¹ 

关键词: dementia;    Alzheimer’s disease;    caregiver;    burden;    depression;    quality of life;    psychodynamic therapy;    body awareness therapy;   

DOI  :  10.1590/0101-60830000000067

来源: SciELO

【 摘 要 】

AbstractBackgroundFamily members providing continuous care to demented patients suffer from severe burden that impairs quality of life and often evolves to depression.ObjectiveThis study aims to evaluate the effect of psychodynamic group psychotherapy (PGT) compared to body awareness therapy (BAT) on caregiver burden, depressive symptoms, and quality of life among family caregivers to Alzheimer disease (AD) patients.MethodsThirty-seven healthy family caregivers were randomly allocated to receive PGT (n = 20) or BAT (n = 17). Interventions were administered in the format of 14 weekly group sessions. Outcome measures were: modification of scores on Zarit Burden Scale, Beck Depression Inventory and WHO-QoL Scale.ResultsParticipants in the PGT group displayed significant reduction on burden (p = 0.01) and depression scores (p = 0.005), and improved quality of life (p = 0.002), whereas those in the BAT group showed improvements in burden of care (p = 0.001) and quality of life (p = 0.01), but not on depressive symptoms (p = 0.13).DiscussionPsychodynamic psychotherapy was associated with amelioration of depressive symptoms, but overall benefits on burden of care and quality of life were similar irrespective of the type of intervention, i.e., psychologically-oriented or not. We hypothesize that these interventions can be complementary to improve depression and burden of care among family caregivers of AD patients.

【 授权许可】

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